


Inevitability

by Mendeia



Series: What Beyond (The Temple Steps Alight) [2]
Category: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, The Sentinel
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Sentinel/Guide Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 10:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4561749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/pseuds/Mendeia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ngama Zimbati arrived at the Chancery that summer rather battered and bruised – in spirit as well as in body.</p><p>Kaimi Waihee was the last to join the housemates and friends...and take her place beside the Sentinel of her heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inevitability

**Author's Note:**

> This one's a little different. It is time to bring some old friends back into the fold.
> 
> Do note that this particular oneshot actually takes place in 2 different periods within the pair of years between Arc 3 and Arc 4. The first half is pretty close to the end of Arc 3, the second a while later. I could have broken them into two different oneshots and set them both in the right place in time, but I thought they worked better as a unit in spite of the time skip. I hope you agree.
> 
> Enjoy!

Ngama arrived at the Chancery that summer rather battered and bruised – in spirit as well as in body.

"What you must understand," he said in a resigned voice as he sat on the rescued armchair in the front room surrounded by his friends old and new, "is that what I have done in coming here is contrary to my father's wishes. He is not yet of the opinion that my Sentinel abilities are anything other than a manifestation of some form of mental disease."

"Dad said he was going to call Doctor Zimbati to talk to him about it," Jonny frowned.

"He did," Ngama answered. "But my father...he is a stubborn, proud man. Even for the debt he owes Doctor Quest, even for their years of collaboration and friendship, this he could not countenance."

"Hold on," Eric held up a hand. "I get that your dad isn't down with you being a Sentinel, not that it's any of his business anyway. I get that he made life hell for you and didn't want you coming here and had your life all mapped out for you already." He met the younger man's gaze steadily. "I _really_ get that."

Everyone in the house was comfortable with the fact that Eric was very happily dating Hadji's former roommate Chris, and Ngama, while surprised when he had been told, had been untroubled by it as well.

"What I don't get is why you've got _that_." And he pointed at the dark swelling just above Ngama's left temple.

"It was not my father, if you are concerned," Ngama said quickly.

"We believe you," Jessie smiled. "We're not saying that."

Hadji and Lai had been brewing tea for their new housemate, and their arrival to the conversation helped relax some of the tension in the air. In addition to the much-needed mug of warm tea that Lai pressed into the young man's hand, on the tray they bore an ice pack, which Hadji affixed with swift efficiency to Ngama's head.

"My father refused to accompany me to the airport," Ngama admitted at last. "He said if I were so dependent upon my delusion that I could not trust his better judgment, I could walk away and never return. I think he believes that, when it is proven that my delusions are an illness rather than a gift, I will shame him somehow."

"You got jumped, didn't you?" Jonny surmised.

Ngama nodded miserably. "You recall I have never been as robust as some, nor have I ever been taught to fight. If not for the fact that most of my money and papers were concealed, I might have lost my passport and ticket. As it stands, I have little more left to me than you see here."

Eric felt a dark anger growing in his chest and looked up to see it reflected in the others. Burning with the heat of injustice were Jonny and Jessie and Daryl. Of course Lai was upset, though it might lack the heat of their more aggressive friends. Hadji's resignation surprised Eric until he recalled what he had been told about the Indian's own upbringing; he realized that Hadji could be just as furious though unsurprised. But for Eric, an outcast himself because of his sexual orientation, it was so much more personal.

"How much time do we have before we head out?" Daryl asked, finally looking up. As soon as the exhausted and bedraggled Ngama had appeared at the airport, Daryl had taken charge of the one bag he carried, and for the duration of the introductions and conversation he had been carefully cleaning and repairing it.

"We have a few hours yet," Hadji said. "Doctor Quest thought that we should head up to the lodge for the evening meal to introduce Ngama to the other Sentinels and begin establishing his own position there. But he did not think we needed appear sooner than that."

"Perfect," Jonny stood up. "Plenty of time."

"Time for what?" Lai asked. The others rose as well, Lai offering a steadying arm to Ngama.

"Ngama, we're going to take you shopping. Hadji and I can cover any expenses you might have. You need a full wardrobe, a laptop, plus some basics like a book about Cascade and maybe even some foods and cooking utensils that will make you feel more at home. We're going to restock everything you should have been able to bring with you."

"My friend," Ngama held out a hand, "you cannot –"

"Wait," Hadji interrupted him. "Less than a year ago, when we encountered you by chance, it was your suggestion that brought the herbal remedy that saved Jonny's life and later enabled Jonny and I to save the city of Cascade from a fire. We do not take that debt lightly." With a blazing intensity, he held Ngama'z gaze. "I owe you my Sentinel's life. You may claim _anything_ it is within my power to grant."

"And I sure wouldn't be part of this without Jonny, and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me," Eric put in. "So that's me, too."

"We can't do anything about that bruise," Lai said. "But telling a room full of a hundred Sentinels that you got in a fight is different from telling them you were mugged and had all of your belongings taken from you."

"Dad will want to know eventually," Daryl said. "He gets weird about stuff like this. But we don't have to tell everybody how things went down right away."

"You're here," Jessie smiled. "There's lots of time to fix things with your dad after you get comfortable and make the adults worry. But this is something we can fix on our own."

"I am sorry to join your home with little but sorrow and a tale of woe," Ngama said. "Being here, to be preparing to study at Cascade and to master my senses...it's all I could ask for. And yet you offer me still more."

"You'd do the same for us if we showed up on your doorstep in Cameroon, wouldn't you?" Eric asked pointedly.

"Of course."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Jonny said. "We've got a bunch of stuff to acquire to get this guy settled!"

"And Ngama?" Eric said as the group began to head for the back-door.

"Yes?"

"After we get you all settled, well, we set up kind of a sparring area in the basement. Any time you want, today or later or whatever, I can give you a few pointers."

"I would like that," Ngama smiled.

"And," Lai added, "if you have any trouble with your international status, I can call my mom, too. Though SELF is pretty powerful all on their own. It never hurts to have another advocate, though."

"I...don't know what to say."

"Say that you'll let Eric and Race teach you to defend yourself," Jessie said firmly. "Say that you'll let Jonny and Hadji buy you stuff and you'll put up with living with all of us and you'll work on your senses and you'll become whatever you want to be. That's all we want."

"We are tribe," Jonny said, meeting Ngama's eyes and feeling their souls resonate to that truth. "All of us."

"What we do for you," Hadji said, sliding next to his brother as the air crackled with the concealed power of the Sentinels and his own spirit, "we do for one another. We do for ourselves. We do because we can and because we must. Because we are one tribe together. One family."

And so Ngama's bleak beginning seemed suddenly brighter.

-==OOO==-

Kaimi came a few weeks later, but her arrival was no less dramatic.

"I wasn't sure the house would still be standing!" she shouted against the storm as the car pulled up and Jim pulled open her door for her.

"No worries on that front!" Jonny laughed as he climbed out into the wet. "It's very stable."

Still, the typhoon-level storm sweeping up the coast had made her travel rather hairy and her luggage was soaked before she managed to wrangle it along the small walkway that divided the detached garage from the house and into the back door to the kitchen. Jim and Blair had gone with Jonny to pick her up at the airport, and it took all three of them to get the door wrenched open and the luggage safely inside before they were washed away.

"You made it! Good thing, too!" Jessie cried as she dashed into the kitchen. "They just announced that they're shutting the airport down until the storm passes."

"After that shaky landing, I can see why!" Kaimi grinned. She tossed back her long black hair, streaked with green this time, in thick, wet clumps. "I think I should have come a month ago like Ngama did."

"And miss the storm? Where's your sense of adventure?" Blair teased.

"I guess I left it back on Maui," she replied.

Jim was busy sorting out her bags, trying to wipe them down with the towels Lai had thoughtfully left by the back-door for that very reason, when he felt the _shift_ in the room.

Looking up, he smiled.

The kitchen had turned into a miniature zoo. The jaguar and wolf were out, sitting near their respective Sentinel and Guide. Jonny's red fox was perched on a counter-top and Hadji's tawny eagle sat sedately beside it; Jonny and Hadji had both retreated to their corner. Eric, Lai, Jessie, and Daryl, all without spirit animals, had gravitated to the far end of the room, leaving the center of the room free.

"Hi." Kami had just taken her coat off, Jim pulling it from her fingers before she let it drop without realizing.

"It is good to see you again," Ngama said, and though the words were stiff, his face was more open and yearning than Jim had ever seen it.

There had been a pretty lengthy debate about when or if Kaimi would be introduced to SELF and the group's secrets. She did not know she might be a Guide and had learned little-to-nothing about Jonny's Sentinel nature in their two brief interactions in the past. Ultimately, when the decision had been left to the housemates (since she would otherwise be the only one in the house not in on the secret, so it would be up to them to maintain), they had decided to let fate show them the way – that was how Hadji explained it to Benton and Jim and Blair, anyway. If Kaimi was not made aware of her inherent suitability as a Guide naturally, then they could decide to bring her into the fold after she had gotten settled. But if it was clear earlier, they would simply take whatever opportunity presented itself.

As, apparently, was happening now.

On the center of the floor, a honey badger had appeared and was peering at Kaimi closely. Blair nudged his partner an instant before a black-footed albatross appeared, waddling awkwardly on the floor to meet the honey badger beak-to-nose.

"I'm...glad to see you, too," Kaimi said.

When the honey badger and albatross touched, Ngama and Kaimi both shivered.

The pairs of Guides and Sentinels grinned brilliantly. Everything was going to be all right now.

-==OOO==-

It was more than a year later that Kaimi and Ngama burst into Blair's office at the SELF house one Friday afternoon.

"Blair, have you got a minute?" Kaimi asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, of course," Blair said, waving them to chairs. "Everything okay?"

"Um. Yes. Everything is fine," Ngama looked supremely uncomfortable.

"We need to talk to someone. And, I mean, we could talk to anybody, I guess, but you're the one we both think we should talk to first, so..." Kaimi looked down at her shoes.

"Well, I'm all ears," Blair invited.

Kaimi and Ngama exchanged nervous glances. All at once, Ngama reached for Kaimi's hand and held it tightly, pulling it against his chest and keeping it there.

"You know that we have been dating for some time now?" he began.

"Since you met in the kitchen when Kaimi got here, yeah," Blair smiled. "Your spirit animals were kissing before either of you had even gotten any good at seeing them."

At this, both young people blushed. Blair got a sudden suspicion.

"We knew," Kaimi said softly. "The same way that Jonny and Hadji knew they were always going to be Sentinel and Guide together. Even when I didn't know I was a Guide, I think I knew. I definitely knew it that day I arrived to live here."

"You may recall, I was there the day that Jonny and Hadji bonded, in which Jonny brought Hadji back from death by the power of their connection." Ngama's usual calm demeanor was overtaking his nerves. "My ability to see with my Sixth sense was much less then for I had not been practicing it, but I was aware of what transpired, at least in essence."

"Tell us about the bonding," Kaimi requested. "Please?"

"I imagine it feels different for every Sentinel and Guide who connect in that way," Blair said carefully. "For me, it was the last warmth before I vanished into the cold of passing onto the next world. That flash of light, when my wolf met Jim's jaguar, though. That feeling...that wasn't momentary. It..." He put a hand on his chest. "It's like feeling the whole universe in your heart, like you are somehow able to hold it inside you, like the peace of the stars flows through your veins and the song of life sings in your lungs. It's not...well, it _is_ love," he coughed. "But it's not what you read about or see on TV. It's...profound."

Then he peered closely at them. "But you already know that, don't you?"

Kaimi and Ngama looked to one another with surprise, and both began to smile.

"I thought so!" Blair grinned. "I couldn't tell right away, but the longer you sat here, the more obvious it became."

"Hadji and Jonny both looked at us strangely this morning," Ngama said. "I believe they could perceive the difference too."

"So, I have to ask, are you all right?" Blair leaned forward with a serious expression. "For me and Jim as well as Jonny and Hadji, it was a life-or-death type thing. But I imagine I'd have heard about it before now if one of you had been in danger of dying yesterday."

"Oh!" Kaimi suddenly flushed bright red. "No...no, it wasn't anything like that. We...uh..."

"We discovered another way to consecrate a bond," Ngama rescued her. "One far more, ahem, positive."

Blair almost coughed on his tongue. "You mean...Jim and I could have...if we'd...?"

"I don't quite know," Ngama said, maintaining his composure with rigid control, though his eyes danced between amusement and embarrassment. "I believe it cannot merely be the carnal act of, uh, forging a union, but...something in the emotional intimacy."

"And," Kaimi spoke softly, "we both wanted it. We both wanted the connection."

"That makes sense," Blair nodded. "Both of you are almost caught up to us in learning about the Sixth and Seventh. We're all finding out that what a Sentinel and Guide will to happen actually _can_ happen because of the Seventh if the Guide is powerful enough." He looked more closely at Kaimi. "Did it wipe you out? Make you feel like you'd run a marathon?"

"Just about," she affirmed. "But it was worth it. I can feel..." She rested her free hand over her heart. "I can feel Ngama. I can feel his spirit animal. I can feel what Hadji talks about, that I will never be without him and he will never be without me."

"And you're okay with that?" Blair had to ask.

"More than okay," Ngama smiled at Kaimi and kissed the hand he held cradled against him. "I am content and fulfilled as I never imagined was possible. I no longer fear myself or my future. I have a Guide to lead me through all the days of our lives."

"If it had been up to me," Kaimi tossed her head with her more familiar spark of personality, though her eyes never left Ngama's face and her smile was genuine, "I'd have laid claim to him the first week we were in the Chancery together. Even before I knew about this stuff, I knew I wanted him. I knew..."

"You knew that your place for life was at the side of someone you wanted to lead, follow, help, and drive forward all at once," Blair finished. "You knew your soul was built to shelter and protect and be protected by another and finally it all fit together."

"Yes, exactly."

"Well, congratulations," Blair smiled at them both. "It's up to you who you tell, but you'll get found out the next time you're up at the lodge, of course. And...well...there might or might not be an unofficial betting pool going on as well. So the sooner you put the losers out of their misery, the better."

Ngama laughed. "We'll keep it in mind."

-==OOO==-

Later that evening, Kaimi and Ngama called a house meeting and announced their bonding to the other denizens of the Chancery. No one was really surprised – they'd been expecting it all along. What did catch at least some of the friends off guard was that Kaimi and Ngama were not yet willing to change up the house's living arrangements in spite of the fact that this last barrier had fallen between them rather spectacularly and permanently. But Ngama's room as the only single in the house was quite small and Kaimi absolutely loved her shared space with Lai and Jessie.

"Privacy when you want it, company when you don't," Eric said only smirking a little.

"Something like that," Kaimi winked at him.

"Should we be throwing you two a congratulations party?" Lai wanted to know.

Both Kaimi and Ngama shook their heads violently. "No thank you!"

"Don't worry," Jessie assured her. "We'll save that for when they want to have the wedding. Then we can go nuts."

"You'll have to wait a while," Kaimi said. "Which is funny, since we're clearly bonded now for life. For more than one life, if Hadji's right," she tipped her head to him. "But it's still different to actually, you know, get married. We don't have to be in a hurry. It's not like either of us is going anywhere," she smiled at Ngama fondly.

"Plus, your mom might flip out if you get married before you get your degree," Jonny pointed out.

"That too," Kaimi acknowledged.

"So, business as usual, then?" Daryl shrugged. "With a little more happy in the Sentinel-Guide world. That sounds like an okay deal to me."

"We have just one question," Ngama said, a smile hovering at the edge of his lips.

"What's that?" Eric asked.

"Who won the betting pool?"

Five faces suddenly twisted in disgust and they all turned to point at Hadji. "Him."

"Was it a thing where you pick a month or a week or something?" Kaimi wanted to know.

Hadji shook his head. "No. One chose a day in each month, with a double bet on one specific day."

"And yesterday was your doubled bet?" Ngama asked.

"Of course."

"How did you know, Hadji?" Jonny demanded. "You had that day picked out months ago!"

"Some things in this world are inevitable, my friend. Some things must happen when it is time for them to happen, and no force known to any man or god may change their course. The wise learn to listen for the sound of fate."

"Fate, huh?" Jonny regarded his own Guide with a suddenly fond smile. "Yeah, I can live with that."

Kaimi and Ngama curled together on the couch. As one, they whispered, "So can we."


End file.
